Wednesday, February 06, 2013

Trapped in a Basement

It's the same old story: Hawk chases starling. Starling goes into air vent. Hawk goes into air vent. Hawk tumbles down air vent into basement. Super opens door and hawk is in basement. What you wind up with is a very PO'ed adult red-tailed hawk in a confined basement that it has zero chance of escaping from. Ferocious_Hawk So Super calls 311. 311 puts them in touch with Animal Control. Animal Control puts them in touch with Audubon Society. Audubon Society sends out an email asking for volunteers to try to assist with the bird. Since its not on a Park, the Rangers or Park Police cant officially respond. Animal Control is not equipped to handle raptor rescues because the require a good deal of training and experience. Each rescue is different and they are all a unique combination of planning and improvisation. For example, I did this rescue in the dark to keep the bird from seeing my hands reach for it. I never tried this technique before but it worked perfectly. This is what that looked like. So after inspection I realize the bird is completely unharmed and had no signs of frounce or other parasites. Given its hungry and ferocious state, I decided it was best to go up to the roof and release this healthy bird. Ferocious_Hawk Before we released it, I scanned the area for how it could have ended up down in the basement. On the top of the roof, I found the answer. How He Got Trapped From the previous pic you can see he was waiting to foot me as I reached into the box. So instead, I gently turned the box over to slide him out. He got the message and bolted from the roof! Free_Ferocious_Hawk Free_Ferocious_Hawk As soon as he got near MSG, a peregrine falcon attacked! Ferocious_Hawk vs Ferocious_Falcon The bird easily defended itself and then carried on toward the South East. Special shout out to Tim the Super...without him the hawk would have met his fate with the other starlings in the basement.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Superb! My heart was in my throat as you were working. What a fortunate animal to have you so close by and willing to help.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!!!You restore my faith that humans can help rather then destroy!

Anonymous said...

What did you actually catch and hold him securely with?

yojimbot said...

I used the towel to distract him, then when he went for it, I then used my gloved hands to secure both of his feet.